By Tanner Lambson 

Most people think heart disease is an adults‑only problem. But VCU Health Pauley Heart Center sees it differently.  

If up to 90% of heart disease is preventable through lifelong healthy habits, then the best time to start protecting a heart isn’t at 40 or 50 — it’s in childhood.  

That’s why Pauley Heart Center’s Heart Heroes outreach program begins early and grows with students. It’s a K-12 pipeline that builds heart-health literacy and opens doors to health care careers, including cardiology.  

"We saw that there was a need within the high school student population for a connection to something beyond high school," said Cheryl Rocha, program manager for community engagement and outreach at Pauley. "The curriculum has been evolving based on that. How can we best help these students and give them the tools and resources that will enrich them on whatever path they want to take?" 

Building relationships, expanding impact 

Heart Heroes began in Hopewell, Virginia — a community that faces higher rates of hypertension than its surrounding counties. It is also a community the Pauley outreach team came to know by showing up in schools, libraries and local events and by listening to what families and educators said they needed.  

District and school leaders quickly became active partners, inviting the team to present progress at school board meetings and to participate in school‑wide events — concrete signs of trust and momentum.

 If you want to make a difference in the community, you have to go into the community and work with the community. 

Arnethea Sutton, Ph.D., VCU Health Pauley Heart Center clinical research team member 

The Heart Heroes umbrella encompasses two main programs: Teach BP, targeted to fourth graders, and the ambassadors program, which works with high school students. Both fall under the leadership of Rocha, along with clinical research associate Jennifer Hundley and community health education specialist Jasmine Williams. 

Teach BP, which was developed by Pauley’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program team leader Sangeeta Shah, M.D., positions fourth graders as "change makers" who share what they learn about hypertension and heart health with the adults in their household. Or in one student’s case: saving their teacher’s life. This program serves the foundational role as the Heart Heroes “entry point.” 

“This program does three wonderful things,” Shah explained. “We empower children to ask questions about their health; expose them to Virginia Commonwealth University students who are pursuing careers in science, medicine, and research; and start a positive ripple effect on the personal health of their families, communities, and hopefully, themselves, in the short- and long-term.” 

The program has grown from serving one elementary school to all three in Hopewell, Virginia, with 300 new students participating in the 2025-2026 academic year alone. Since it was established in 2023, Pauley’s outreach teams have since educated more than 700 fourth graders. 

The expansion reflects advice the outreach team received early on from Arnethea Sutton, Ph.D., who is a member of a VCU Health Pauley Heart Center clinical research team and an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Humanities and Sciences: “If you want to make a difference in the community, you have to go into the community and work with the community.” 

"We took that to heart. That's what we've been doing with all of our programs—integrating ourselves wherever we're needed," Rocha said. 

That integration extends beyond the classroom. The outreach team participates in Hopewell health fairs, connects with the Hopewell Farmers Market and works closely with a Community Advisory Board that includes teachers, local community members and doctors. The Community Advisory Board meets regularly with Rocha and Hundley to discuss public health needs and opportunities in Hopewell, and to provide feedback on Pauley’s programs.  

The Teach BP program, organized by VCU Health Pauley Heart Center, teaches students how having high blood pressure can harm important organs throughout the body. (Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation)

A new generation of heart health advocates 

Fall of 2025 marked the launch of the Heart Heroes Ambassador Program — a program which falls under the Heart Heroes umbrella. The Ambassador Program empowers high school students to explore diverse health care careers, build professional development skills, and engage directly with their community through mentorship and hands‑on learning. 

The program came as a result of community feedback.  

“While we had interest in expanding the programing to ages beyond fourth grade, we really put those ideas into motion after members of the community vocalized that they wished Hopewell high schoolers had more opportunities to connect with VCU and explore health care careers,” Rocha said. 

As a first-year initiative, it drew remarkable student interest. After sorting through 87 student applications, the team selected 13 ambassadors as the program’s inaugural cohort.  

"From the beginning, we've had a lot of support," Williams said. "Thankfully, the students are the measurement of how well it's doing because [our meetings fall] during their lunchtime, and they show up every single time." 

We want to show the students that there isn't one set path for success. Achievement comes in all different forms... 

Cheryl Rocha, program manager for community engagement and outreach at VCU Health Pauley Heart Center

 The ambassadors meet with the Pauley team once or twice monthly for hour-long sessions featuring guest speakers, health care career workshops and professional development. Some speakers have included current medical students and representatives from Virginia’s Community College Workforce Alliance, who shared information on the wide variety of health care training programs available at community colleges in the state.  

"We specifically like to introduce students to careers that don't have traditional pathways to that career or those that require different levels of education and schooling," Williams said.  

For the second half of the school year, the program pivots to a professional development focus. Ambassadors will practice interview skills, develop their resumes and cover letters and work on applications to jobs and training programs. 

"We want to show the students that there isn't one set path for success. Achievement comes in all different forms; whether that’s an associate degree, tech school, or even simply following your passion project," Rocha said.  

The team has also partnered with CodeRVA, a Richmond technical school serving students from approximately 16 school districts across Virginia. Six CodeRVA students are participating in a modified Heart Heroes Ambassador Program that connects students with technology-based jobs in health care. 

"Those students are into coding, graphic design, marketing — all the things that you can think of in the computer science world," Williams said. "We're showcasing all these great opportunities that exist in health care that have some type of tech integration." 

The Ambassador program initially focused heavily on cardiology careers, but the Pauley team has adapted to incorporate student interests more broadly across health care fields, though cardiology remains highlighted throughout. 

Developing mentorships with a heartfelt mission 

The Hopewell High School ambassadors aren't just learning — they're also teaching. They volunteer in their former elementary school classrooms, where they help lead Teach BP lessons for fourth graders. 

"The fourth graders love having the high schoolers in the classroom and ask us constantly when they're going to be back," Hundley said. 

That cross-grade connection is expanding. This spring, the team will introduce a middle school touchpoint through a career fair that the high school ambassadors will help organize. In fall 2026, they plan to launch a kindergarten program in which Teach BP graduates will lead heart health story time in classrooms. 

As part of the program, providers and researchers from VCU Health Pauley Heart Center go into schools to teach students how to take blood pressure readings. (Daniel Sangjib Min, MCV Foundation)

The Pauley community outreach team is also exploring expanding their programs to Petersburg. 

"The expansion of this program has been pretty amazing to see. I've been here less than a year, and we’ve already gone from talking about an idea all the way to bringing it to life," Williams said. "With the continuous collaboration and teamwork that we have, the sky is the limit." 

For a program that began with a blood pressure demonstration in a single elementary school classroom, Heart Heroes in grow into a comprehensive educational pipeline that will eventually touch students in kindergarten through high school — a pipeline that Pauley hopes will help to develop tomorrow’s health care workforce. 

"All of what we do is just for the benefit of the health of the community at the end of the day," Williams said. 

Offering hope to people with heart disease. Learn more about our services at VCU Health Pauley Heart Center.

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